Uninvented: Resurrection, The Foundation of the Church in the Book of Acts

Uninvented: Resurrection, The Foundation of the Church in the Book of Acts

Dec 27, 2023 | Apologetics

We won’t be surprised to learn that the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was the most important factor in the establishment and growth of the early church. As we’ll see from Acts, the Apostles proclaimed it everywhere they went and it was clearly the foundation of the early church. Anyone who is presented with the Christian faith is confronted with a choice. Either this first century Jewish itinerant preacher came back from the dead after being brutally tortured and killed on a Roman cross, or he didn’t. That alone determines whether Christianity is true or false, and there is no in between. C.S. Lewis put it well:

One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Our response to the resurrection should mirror Lewis. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, it is of no importance, and if he did, it is of infinite importance. One thing it cannot possibly be is moderately important. Yet when the Enlightenment influenced biblical criticism became a scholarly pursuit in the 19th century, many of the scholars and their followers wanted to keep Christianity without the resurrection. As reason was embraced over revelation, there developed in due course a dogmatic anti-supernatural bias: If there was something supernatural in the Bible it was assumed it couldn’t have happened and needed to be explained some other way. I say, if it didn’t happen burn the Bible and move on to something else. It’s all a lie. But alas they tried to keep the Bible, and we were introduced to something called “liberal” Christianity which is anything but Christianity. A hundred years ago J. Gresham Machen wrote a book called Christianity & Liberalism arguing that liberal Christianity was another religion altogether, and he was right.

Something Happened to Start the Early Church
One thing all non-orthodox Christian scholars agreed on even with their anti-supernatural bias was that something dramatic had to happen for the emergence of Christianity out of Judaism and its explosive growth. J.P. Moreland says anyone “who denies the resurrection owes us an explanation of this transformation which does justice to the historical facts.” Skeptics don’t like these historical facts because, well, resurrections can’t happen! Let’s confuse them with these facts they have no ability to explain apart from the supernatural. According to Moreland, the first Christians, strict Jews all, immediately gave up these Jewish convictions that defined everything about their religion:

  1. The sacrificial system.
  2. The importance of keeping the law.
  3. Keeping of the Sabbath.
  4. Non-Trinitarian theism.
  5. A human Messiah.

The skeptic says, “Yeah, so what. No big deal, happens every day of the week.” Well, if it does, I’m waiting for some evidence. Instead, all we get is anti-supernatural bias masquerading as above-it-all, supposedly objective assertions with zero basis in historical fact. As Moreland says in a bit of understatement, “The resurrection offers the only rational explanation.”

What makes the resurrection especially difficult for the skeptic to dismiss is the Jewish understanding of resurrection. A good example is when Jesus went to his friend Lazarus’s tomb and was comforting his sister Martha:

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

The resurrection for Jews was solely an eschatological concept, something that will happen at the end of time when all sin, suffering, and death is dealt with once and for all. One person rising from the dead in the middle of history with a continuation of fallen reality was incompatible with everything they believed about resurrection. If they were to make up the resurrection of Jesus, they would have to invent a concept nobody had ever thought of in the 1,500-year history of the Jewish religion. Knowing this, we are confronted with the concept of Uninvnented: How could these Jews make up something they couldn’t conceive or imagine? I would argue they couldn’t, and the burden of proof is on the skeptics with an anti-supernatural bias to prove they did make it up, but they can’t.

Options to an Actual Resurrection
Because something had to happen for Christianity to emerge out of Judaism, the 19th century scholars and skeptics had to come up with some reason related to the resurrection that the first Christians so boldly proclaimed even at the threat to their own lives. Any of the options that have been invented, pun intended, are far less plausible than Jesus of Nazareth coming back to life on the third day after he was crucified as his followers so proclaimed.

Some, like the Pharisees, claim the disciples stole the body. Those men and women were not in any shape emotionally or psychologically to have done so. Their confusion and distress by events that happened so quickly, compounded by mourning the death of the man they thought their beloved Messiah, makes them unlikely candidates as masterminds of a conspiracy to deceive the Roman government of Judea and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem. Not only that, but they would also have been deceiving Jesus’ followers, and then have openly lied about it for the rest of their lives, even as they gave their lives for what they knew to be a lie. Eighteenth century Christian philosopher William Paley puts it well:

Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what they never saw; assert facts which they had no knowledge of, go about lying to teach virtue; and, though not only convinced of Christ being an imposter, but having seen the success of his imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in carrying on; and so persist, as to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with full knowledge of the consequences, enmity and hatred, danger and death?

The question answers itself.

There are only two other equally implausible options. One is he didn’t really die on the cross, known as “the swoon theory,” and the other is that somehow the body disappeared, and his followers thought they experienced a risen Jesus. For the former, if Jesus somehow survived something the Romans were particularly good at, and had extensive experience doing, Jesus wouldn’t have been in good shape. An ER with modern medicine would have had a hard time keeping him alive. He certainly wouldn’t have been the Jesus they boldly proclaimed as risen, a victor over sin and death, one to be worshiped as Thomas said as Lord and God.

The only other option to an actual physical resurrection, stolen body, or swoon theory, is that the tomb was in fact empty, and Jesus’ disciples thought they saw Jesus. These appearances of Jesus, while not real, had the effect as if they were real, and boom—Christianity explodes! German higher critics of the 19th century, and liberal Christians of the early 20th, were fond of arguing for this spiritual Jesus somehow appearing, and the disciples having what they called a “resurrection experience.” The historicity of the event was beside the point, and we all know (wink, wink) people don’t come back from the dead, especially after the Romans got done with them. Jesus’ followers were so distraught, the argument goes, and so longing for the crucified Messiah to come back to them somehow, that their minds conjured up a Jesus who came back from the dead. Then, because of this “spiritual” experience, they went throughout the Roman Empire proclaiming a resurrected Lord. The problem with this explanation, other than its absurdity, is however it was explained, by dreams, visions, or mass hallucinations, it all comes up against the same cold hard truth: for Jews, a resurrection of one man in the middle of history was inconceivable, as was a resurrection that was not bodily and physical.

Eyewitnesses of a Risen Jesus
One thing liberal scholars completely rejected was that Jesus’ followers were eyewitnesses of a Jesus who did miracles and rose from the dead. All of it, in their minds, could be explained “naturally” or psychologically. Yet Jesus followers claimed they were eyewitnesses. The careful historian Luke who also wrote Acts says exactly that (Luke 1):

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

This sounds like something we should seriously consider. Or they were lying. That I have a hard time believing.

Let’s see how Luke conveys the foundational importance of the resurrection in Acts. I will simply put the verses below and let you contemplate the cumulative reality power they have.

 

  • Acts 1:3

3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

  • Acts 1:21-22

21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

  • Acts 2:23-24

23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

  • Acts 2:31-33

31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

  • Acts 3:15

15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

  • Acts 4:2

2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

  • Acts 4:10

10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

  • 4:19-20

19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

  • Acts 4:33

33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all . . .

  • Acts 5:30-31

30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.

  • Acts 10:39-41

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

  • Acts 13:30-37

30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:

“‘You are my son;

today I have become your father.’

34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said,

“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’

35 So it is also stated elsewhere:

“‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’

36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

  • Acts 17:2-3

2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.

  • Acts 17:31

31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

  • Acts 26:8, 22-23

8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

22 But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Conversion and a Typical Christian Response

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Conversion and a Typical Christian Response

Dec 21, 2023 | Western Civilization

I recently did a post on the surprising conversion of ex-atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Christianity. A response by John Daniel Davidson at The Federalist is insightful, but it is also a great object lesson in the constricted view of Christianity common among many modern Christians. Ayaan became a Christian primarily for two reasons. A Muslim, after 9/11 she lost her faith and became a passionate defender of the liberal West against tyrannical Islam. She realized over the last twenty years that atheism could never sustain what the Judeo-Christian tradition gave to the world in Christian Western civilization. She also found that living in a God-less universe without any spiritual solace unendurable. I think she could relate to the reason C.S. Lewis rejected atheism for Christianity. He said he believed in Christianity as he believed the sun had risen, not because he saw it but because by it he saw everything else. Without Christianity the puzzle pieces of life never fit, but with it they finally made sense. This is the power Ayaan now sees in Christianity

What She discovered in Christianity was not only a worldview that explains everything, but a faith whose purpose is to transform the fallen world into which it was born. Davidson like most Christians sees Christianity as primarily personal with spiritual implications for the individual, and only secondarily with implications for society. Davidson’s assessment of her conversion is a good example of this myopic view of Christianity:

She’s also right about that but wrong to think Christianity is primarily about countering those forces or preserving a particular civilizational or political project. As great as Western civilization is, it arose as a byproduct of the Christian faith, the sole object of which is communion with Almighty God by means of salvation through Jesus Christ. Things like freedom of speech, rule of law, and human rights are fruits of the Christian faith, but they are not what Christianity is about.

This is right and wrong, unfortunately more wrong than right. It is right because of course all the wonderful blessings we experience in the West are because of Christianity, as Tom Holland persuasively argues in his book Dominion. It is wrong because the fruit he speaks of is most definitely what Christianity is about.

Societal Transformation is Not a Byproduct of Christianity
Davidson uses the word “byproduct” for the blessings that Christianity brought to the world. That word is defined as, “a secondary and sometimes unexpected or unintended result.” Although most Christians believe this, and I too believed it until not long ago, I now believe it is not the biblical position. Jesus himself tells us the reason for his coming, and it wasn’t merely personal salvation that would somehow spill over into society. I quote these words a lot and sound like a broken record, but Jesus said them for a reason. When he taught his disciples to pray he said (Matthew 6, KJV):

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Then we will connect this with the Great Commission in Matthew 28:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Again, like most Christians, I saw Jesus’ command to the eleven disciples in purely personal terms, but Matthew has Jesus use the Greek word ethnos- ἔθνος, which means a race, people, or nation, not a comparable Greek word for individual. And then they are to teach this conglomeration of peoples to “obey everything” he commanded them—not some things, but everything. And Jesus prefaces his command with his declaration of ultimate authority in heaven and on earth, then he says, Therefore, go. Are we to believe he will not exercise that authority for the advancement of his kingdom? That he’s telling his disciples to give it the good old college try, but you know, this fallen world is pretty bad and ultimately evil will win until I come back at the end of time to save the day? I believe those questions answer themselves. And the Apostle Paul tells us the kingdom of God is a matter “of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” How by any definition is societal transformation in all this a “byproduct” of Christianity? It seems like that’s the point.

I do understand Davidson’s concern, an understandable one shared by many Christians. It is that we’re going to primarily make Christianity about politics or “social justice,” and the gospel of salvation and personal holiness becomes secondary. Fair enough, but fallen saved sinners do this all time with all kinds of things. Tim Keller often said, idolatry is turning good things into ultimate things. Just because people do this doesn’t make those things not good. And this is far more than a debate about the Christian worldview applying to all of life, which I’ve always believed. Rather, it turns on the authority of Christ he earned by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to take back his creation from the devil. Satan’s temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 is instructive to make my point:

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

At that point in redemptive history Satan had the authority to do this, but Jesus rejected him because his mission was to take “the kingdoms of the world” back! Thus his preface to the Great Commission, and Paul’s assertion in Ephesians 1 that Jesus is seated at God’s right hand exercising all authority in this present age as well as the age to come. That is the issue, bringing Christ’s authority into all things, not just Christian influence as a byproduct of personal salvation.

I think it will be helpful for those who aren’t sure about all this to get a redemptive-historical perspective on what I’m saying. The battle waged for this world, the battle in which we are engaged whether we like it or not, or whether we’re even aware of it or not, is a civilizational battle between Christianity and paganism. There is no in between, as some think of secularism. It is either/or.

Christianity Verses Paganism
The war against paganism in redemptive history also goes back a very long way. This is the same war over ultimate things we fight today—it only looks more sophisticated.

The Bible doesn’t inform us how long it was from Babel (Gen. 11) to God calling Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans, but it’s only one chapter. In the first verse of Genesis 12, the Lord says to Abram: “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you,” and “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That land was Canaan and it encompassed modern day Israel and surrounding lands. The blessings would eventually encompass the entire world starting with God developing a covenant relationship with Abram (Gen. 15). The Lord declared through a covenant ceremony that He would be responsible for both sides of the agreement making it a legally binding contract in the ancient world. In Genesis 3, the Lord had promised the seed of the woman would bruise or strike the serpent’s head, and we see here the beginnings of the fulfillment of that promise. Amid a heathen world, God would use one man to create a people for Himself. In due course, this people would defeat the dominant pagan religions of the ancient world to create a modern world where the knowledge of God would one day stretch throughout the earth.

In the ensuing 2000 years, God’s plans didn’t appear to be progressing much. After His promises to Abram in Genesis 12 and 15, then confirming his covenant in the sign of circumcision (17) and changing his name to Abraham (means father of many), God put him through the ultimate test with Isaac (22). When Abraham passed the test, the Lord confirmed His promise yet again:

17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

The entire history of Israel is the story of one battle after another in this religious i.e., spiritual, war. From the beginning of Israel’s identity as a people, they vacillate between embracing the idolatry and paganism of the surrounding nations, or Yahweh and the true worship of God. The story seems to end without an ending in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, but it points forward to the messenger of the one who would bring ultimate victory over the enemies of God’s people. In 3:1 we are introduced to Yahweh’s messenger:

 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Four hundred years later John the Baptist turned out to be the messenger, and Malachi tells us this will be the beginning of something big, a momentous salvific moment in the history of redemption:

5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

And Jesus, as he does in his often cryptic way, confirms this in Matthew 11 :

14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 He who has ears, let him hear.

At the time Jesus appeared on the scene, victory over God’s enemies certainly didn’t appear immanent. Israel was a small backwater province in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire, the Romans being only their latest oppressors. They certainly didn’t resemble the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore promised to Abraham two thousand years previously

Jesus’ disciples were convinced he was the long-awaited Messiah who would fulfill God’s covenant promise and give his people victory over their enemies, finally ushering in God’s kingdom reign on earth. Prior to the resurrection, they didn’t realize the Messiah’s immediate concerns were not geopolitical, but rather saving His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). When Jesus was crucified on a cross, hung on a tree indicating he was under God’s curse (Deut. 21:23, Gal. 3:13), they knew he could not be their long-awaited Messiah—until the third day. Jesus then explained to them how the entire Old Testament is about him (Luke 24), which would include the promise to multiply Abraham’s seed beyond human ability to count. The geopolitical and cultural implications would take time to become apparent as God’s kingdom advanced and the church grew like leaven in a very large batch of dough (Matt. 13:31-35).

The Apostles and the New Testament Church also didn’t have geopolitics and culture on their minds because they expected Jesus to come back within their lifetimes. We see in Acts and the Epistles how this new Christian faith would influence their actions toward the political powers of the day, but it wouldn’t be until well into the second century when it became apparent Jesus might not be coming back soon after all. Christian thinkers would need to explore more fully the implications of Christianity for society.

This became imperative when, against all expectations, Constantine converted to Christianity in the early fourth century, and Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD by Emperor Theodosius I. The implications for Christianity on society became even more imperative when in the early fifth century the Goths sacked Rome and overran the Roman Empire. The pagans blamed the Christians and their strange religion for angering the gods and bringing the downfall of the Empire. A robust defense of Christianity was required, and Augustine, the great Bishop of Hippo (northern Africa), mounted one in his erudite tome, The City of God. This influential work would reverberate down through the ages as Christians realized there were no easy answers to the questions posed by those who inhabited a heavenly city and how they would engage with the earthly city. It seemed the pagans, though, would again be the dominant force in Europe, and God’s promise to Abraham delayed yet again.

The Defeat of Paganism
However, the pagans didn’t win. Through St. Patrick and the Irish, to English King Alfred the Great, to the history of England from Magna Carta to the Glorious Revolution and the establishment of the Rule of Law, to America’s founding, God’s kingdom was advancing and paganism defeated. Paganism started making it’s great comeback in the Enlightenment, and its full fruition finally established in the 21st century secular West. Make no mistake, secularism is paganism, and as I said above there is no in between. We will either be ruled by the tyranny and will to power of paganism, or the liberty of Christ in the rule of God’s law. As I’ve heard Doug Wilson say, it’s either Christ or chaos.

This spiritual war, and it is ultimately spiritual, started at the fall, and the first shot across the Satanic bow was God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. For the next 4,000 years the war has been between God’s redeemed people and the pagans, and only one of these people can rule the earth. God assured victory for His people in Genesis 15 when he made a unilateral covenant promise to Abram. He would fulfill both sides of the agreement and give Abram and his descendants the land of promise. This land purchased by Christ, his very own creation, is the land on which you and I stand!

 

 

Uninvented: John 13 and Jesus Washing the Disciples Feet

Uninvented: John 13 and Jesus Washing the Disciples Feet

Dec 18, 2023 | Uninvented

Of the many unexpected things Jesus did in his life, washing his disciples feet has to be up there among the most astonishing. I would add the most uninvented as well. Almost everything Jesus taught and did upended cultural and religious norms. The kingdom he came to bring to earth would be nothing like the kingdoms of this world built on power and force, but because of that it would have the power to transform those kingdoms. That is the point of the prayer he taught us, “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” No longer would kingdoms be established and maintained solely by force and violence, but transformed by peaceful means of persuasion and service. This applies not only to geopolitical kingdoms, but anywhere rule is necessary for order and direction, be it a family or business or school, any organization. Direction, leadership, authority, and yes sometimes power displayed as force (e.g., government, military) are required for anything to run in harmony and symmetry, or else there is anarchy and dysfunction.

Jesus’ Foot Washing Object Lesson
Foot washing was not uncommon in the ancient world because people walked on dirt roads in sandals everywhere they went. Often it was used as a sign of hospitality when coming into someone’s home, but it was servants or slaves who did the foot washing. Never would someone of superior social status ever wash an inferior’s feet. That would have been, literally, inconceivable, as in nobody could imagine such a thing—Until Jesus did it. You can see this in the response of impetuous Peter when he sees Jesus begin to prepare the basin of water and start washing the other disciples feet. He is incredulous: 

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

You gotta love Peter, so honest, and so wrong. Jesus gently rebukes him, and typical of Peter, he goes to the other extreme. Jesus replies that those who have had a bath, only need their feet washed. That meant something in the ancient context when baths and water were hard to come by, but in redemptive-historical context it is positively elegant. I read it as those belonging to Christ are justified, and as we walk along the sinfully dusty streets in a fallen world, we just need our feet cleansed with the water of sanctification. As Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:30, Jesus is for us both our justification and sanctification.

Jesus, as he often did, is teaching through object lessons. He asks them if they understand what he’s done for them. It was a rhetorical question because he knew they were clueless, as they always seemed to be. Then he tells them:

13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

We’ll remember how the disciples argued among themselves who was the greatest, so Jesus figured they needed one final lesson in humility, and one they could never forget.

Why We Can Serve Others
What prompted me to write about this event was how Jesus prefaced his lesson. John tells us:

3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

It struck me that the reason Jesus was willing to act and be viewed as a lowly servant was because he knew who he was. Not only was he equal with God, what his enemies accused him of, he was God! And here he is doing something only a servant or slave would do. Jesus was giving us a glimpse into what it means to bring the kingdom of God or heaven into this fallen world. I will explore that more below. The point isn’t washing feet, although in the ancient world serving others may have taken that form, but serving others in general, and why we can do it. It is not just because we saw Jesus do it as our example—it’s much deeper than that.

This passage has profound theological meaning if we understand the radical nature of the gospel, what it says about us, and what it means for us. The gospel first transforms our heart from God-hating stone to God-loving flesh. Then by the power of the Holy Spirit transforms us so we can in turn transform our world. Jesus accomplished redemption for his people and the world, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit began to apply it. The beginning of redemption starts in Genesis 3. Because of the fall, the serpent, Satan, the devil, will strike the heel of the woman’s seed (Christ and his church, his people), but Christ will strike the serpent’s head where real damage can take place. As we see the history of redemption wind its way through the Bible, we begin to understand the utterly tragic nature of sin, and the horrific consequences it leaves in its wake. We are sinners, guilty, justifiably condemned sinners. We are by nature enemies of God, in fact God haters. He died for us, so we can and must die for others—as I said, radical. But as Jesus said, only in dying to ourselves for him will we find true life.

How the Gospel Helps us Serve Others
What has this to do with serving others? Until we know that we are truly dreadful sinners, and that there is nothing good in us worthy of God’s acceptance, will we be able to love others in our service to them. But first we must understand who we are in Christ as saved sinners. Probably the most important and consequential verse in my Christian life relates directly to this discussion, and I referenced it above. It is in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians where he is discussing the foolishness of the cross and the wisdom of God. Toward the end he says:

30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 

The Him is God, and it is He that chooses us and puts us “in Christ Jesus.” It is God’s wisdom that in His presence He sees us as if we are Christ himself, positionally, justified (righteousness), and becoming in obedience more like Christ (sanctification). The reason this can all happen is because He purchased us in Christ to be forever HIs (redemption). The operative word in all this is obedience. What makes the gospel dynamic is obedience to the greatest commandment, love, which is the fulfillment of the law. As Jesus says, you will know the tree by its fruit. In this case, serving others is not an option, but done in obedience to God, and it is only in obedience to God that he can bless us. Notice how Jesus ends his object lesson: If you follow his example, you will be blessed. The lesson is a key that unlocks the door for Christians to bring the kingdom of God into this fallen world.

Serving Others Changes the World
I am convinced most Christians don’t understand the implications of the Lord’s prayer for the world. We tend to see the spiritual stuff for the church, and the fallen world beyond the scope of redemption, outside of God’s kingdom. I believe that is exactly wrong, but it was something I believed for over four decades of my Christian life. Now I see the entire world, literally, as the object of God’s saving work, not just individuals and their religious lives. The reason Jesus came to earth wasn’t just to save people’s souls, but through the process of transforming them he would bring his kingdom to earth as it is done in heaven, and thus transform the earth as well. That’s how radical the gospel is. When Jesus gave the charge to the eleven to make disciples of all nations, he was serious. And God the Father granted him “all authority in heaven and on earth” to accomplish specifically that. We are not doing this ourselves, brothers and sisters, God in Christ is doing it through us!

That means though the world is fallen, it is not irreparably so. Damaged and broken, it is not beyond repair. The darkness, the sin, the suffering are real, but not the end of the story. The kingdom comes slowly, often imperceptibly, like a mustard seed and leaven, but inevitably because Christ’s righteousness is more powerful than Adam’s sin. The victory of the cross and resurrection is a this world victory first, and only then a next world one. The ultimate transformation will take place when Christ returns, defeats death, and brings heaven down to earth to complete the transformation of his creation. I could write a book on this, and God willing I will, but one passage shows definitively that Christ’s reign and kingdom is not limited to a spiritual other worldly kingdom. In Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul is describing God’s “incomparably great power for us who believe.” This power is so great there is nothing to which it can be compared. I will quote a portion of verse 19 in Greek, the transliteration, and the modern English translation, because only in Greek can the incomparable be conveyed so well:

καὶ τί τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς τοὺς πιστεύοντας

Kai ti to hyperballon megethos tēs dynameōs autou eis hēmas tous pisteuontas

And what is the surpassing greatness of the power of Him toward us those believing

You’ll probably notice three English words we are familiar with that come from the three Greek words in the sentence: hyperbole, mega, and dynamite. The power, the dynamite of what God accomplished in Christ’s resurrection is hyperbolically mega. Words fail in conveying such power, but that’s as close as you’re going to get. Then Paul tells us what this power did:

Which he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 

God’s incomparable power did two things: raise Christ and seat him at his right hand, the position of ultimate power and authority in the universe. We rarely mention that it is both of these, or that the present age comes first in Paul’s thinking. And the word Paul uses for exerted is where we get our word energy, in Greek, energeó-ἐνεργέω. This exertion, this energy is done by the same God who created everything out of nothing. That, my friends, is power! It is this same power that transforms us and our world, not us! And what does it take to turn on this energy through us? Washing feet!

Serving others is the magic that makes gospel love flow and compels sinful darkness to flee, and there are infinite numbers of opportunities to serve others every day of our lives. What keeps us from doing this? Augustine and Luther rightly said it is homo incurvatus in se, or sinful man being curved in on himself. Sinful us thinks what we want, what we think, what we do, what we have, what we accomplish, and just plain old we is more important than others. If we really believed others were more important than us, I suggest we would treat them not better than we would treat ourselves, but treat them as we would want to be treated. It’s called the golden rule, and Christ’s resurrection and ascension power is what enables us to do it. Give it a try and you’ll see how it can change your world.

 

 

Strunk and White: God Revealed in Words

Strunk and White: God Revealed in Words

Dec 14, 2023 | Culture

It’s amazing how easy it is for us to not see God in everything. The reason is because secularization has squeezed the divine out of life. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor describes our secular age as disenchanted, or the loss of the transcendent, what is over and above and beyond this material world. Life in the secular age becomes entirely horizontal. All that matters to secular man is the immanent, what he can see and hear and taste and touch. Described differently, we tend to see life as atoms and events colliding willy nilly, sometimes benefiting us, most times annoying and often harming us. These purposeless (secular) circumstances mostly get in our way and keep us from getting what we want. This focus on the here and the now, the mundane, the every day, primarily focused on us, strips the wonder we should have in the magical mystery tour that is life. And unlike with the Beatles, we don’t need a reservation. The magic is laid out on a platter for us every day right before our eyes. We merely have to break through the secular and learn how to see the divine. As the Apostle Paul says, it is everywhere (Rom. 1):

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so they are without excuse.

The “they” Paul is referring to are those “who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” In other words, they have no incentive to see God’s invisible qualities in the visible because they prefer their sin. They like being their own god, thank you very much.  We are all given to this temptation, but we can learn to see God’s creation in the material world, His “eternal power and divine nature,” thus see God in everything. We can start the process learning from the ancient pagan Greeks, Plato and Aristotle, who said philosophy, or the love of wisdom, begins in wonder. We have to be taught to wonder, to learn how not to be secular, which is a challenge in a secular age. But we can be encouraged knowing it gets easier, that it is matter of obedience. If we want to please God and be blessed by him, we will see his invisible qualities in everything.

How Not to Be Secular
How exactly do we do this? First, we must realize how secularism blinds us to the truth of God, and in all the ways it happens. It’s rarely a brick in the face; the subtle ways we are programmed into secularism are often difficult to spot. As we develop our skills and a wary eye, in due course we will see the secular “agenda” everywhere. I put the quotation marks around agenda because this is not planned by a cabal of nefarious God haters to suck us into their illusions of a God-less universe. Rather, it is simply people’s secular worldview expressed culturally in all they do, be it in their art, or scholarship, or news, or how they see and do law and government, architecture, everything. An obviously not obvious example is TV and movies. Again, this is mostly subtle by treating God as persona non grata, i.e., a person who is unacceptable, unwelcome, or ignored, mostly ignored. God haters don’t sell well to Americans, but an invisible God doesn’t have to be sold.

Any show or movie that isn’t obviously Christian could be given as an example. One we recently watched and enjoyed very much was a documentary series on Netflix about British soccer star David Beckam. The only time the divine makes a showing is when Beckam utters the name and title Jesus Christ in frustration, and the word God makes an appearance or two. Like most art through film, there is no anti-God animas—He’s simply irrelevant. I realized some years ago as I became aware of the insidious nature of secularism that the irrelevant God is probably the most powerful weapon against faith (i.e., trust) in God in the modern world. This secular mindset can easily develop in us if we’re not careful, and a certain kind of God unawareness becomes how we start viewing the world. Almost in a moment, a world of a missing God seems more plausible than one with an omnipresent God.

The Power of Plausibility Structures
I learned about this sociological concept a long time ago, but was reintroduced to its power when I wrote my first book, The Persuasive Christian Parent. Put simply, societies develop the mechanisms (i.e., structures like a building we live in) that make certain things seem true and other things not true. Whether they are true or not isn’t the point, only if they seem true, or seem plausible, to us. This concept is why Taylor wrote his book with the title, A Secular Age. In the Western world today, secularism is the dominant, and often oppressive, plausibility structure, and it appears to many people Fort Knox strong. For example, most people who do not think critically or carefully about things, and from a very specifically intentional Christian worldview (i.e., seeing God in everything) will look at a show like the Beckham documentary and never ask, “Where is God?” God is just as irrelevant to their lives as he is to the Beckham’s.

The easiest way to grasp this concept is to think of it in regard to a movie or TV show or a novel. If they are done well, the story will grip you with its realness, its verisimilitude. You won’t be distracted knowing there is a camera following the character, and likely dozens of people in the room doing the work to make the scene seem plausible. If you yourself were in the room watching it being shot, it would appear to you exactly like what it is, one scene being shot in a movie or TV show. If you’re reading a good novel you won’t think about the person who wrote it making this all up; it will have the plausibility structure to move you; it will seem real. This brings me to the reason I wrote this post.

The Elements of Style and The Revelation of God
I recently read a book called, The Elements of Style. For that past eight years I’ve been on a journey to become a “writer.” Like everything else in my life, I was not naturally good at it, and for a while insecure and doubtful I could master the skills necessary to communicate clearly through written words. I have improved considerably, I think, and continue my journey to improve my craft daily. I had read Elements years ago and thought a re-read of this classic was in order. I was pleasantly surprised I’ve adopted many of the rules laid out as necessary for effective writing, but it was the last chapter on the intangible thing called style that made me shout out, God! I’ve always known words are spiritually profound because our Savior is called the Word, or logos-λόγος in Greek. Also, God created the heavens and the earth using words; God said, and it was. That is power! And we are made in God’s image, so our words have power as well, although in our case for good and ill. Words are primarily and ultimately spiritual in nature, and in some sense communicate He who is the Word.

As I read the following passage introducing the concept of style, I could not help thinking of Romans 1, and God’s invisible qualities:

Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries, and this chapter is a mystery story, thinly disguised. There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course. Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.

What the author is trying to describe can only be known when we see or hear it. It is magic, or more accurately, the divine, be it in music or words. What these do to us goes beyond sound waves and ink on a page, and he gives a wonderfully simple example. In the darkest days of the Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine penned these immortal words to start a series of essays called, The American Crisis:

These are the times that try men’s souls.

He then gives the same or similar words rearranged to show how it is only these eight simple words arranged exactly this way that exhibit the “high mysteries” of language:

  • Times like these try men’s souls.
  • How trying it is to live in these times!
  • These are trying times for men’s souls.
  • Soulwise, these are trying times.

These are all grammatically correct and the meaning is clear and the same as Paine’s, but they would have been “marked for oblivion” the moment they were written. We can all see the power and superiority of Paine’s version, but none of us could say why exactly it has that quality. We just know that it does, that it moves us, and says something profound we cannot forget.

Music is the same way. I often think of this with my favorite bands and artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s. What was it, for example, about the four young men who made up the Beatles that made their music so magical to so many millions of people all over the world? Listening to their catalog it seemed almost impossible for them to make a bad song. For me, Led Zeppelin was the same. The 1970s version of Stevie Wonder as well. Or take Frank Sinatra. He could sing a song and bring out the magic in the notes and words, while other singers of the same song make me yawn. Nat King Cole had that magic too. Everyone’s taste is different, but this extends beyond taste. I’ll never forget at a function my wife and I attended in the 1990s where I experienced this. I heard a group perform the song Crazy by Patsy Cline, and even though the music wasn’t my “style,” I couldn’t get over how heavy the song was. It had that undefinable magic, and we became Patsy Cline fans instantly. The same happened for me when I learned about singer-songwriter Martin Sexton and his album, The American. In fact, when I first played the CD for my family, my daughter said, “Dad, this is not your kind of music.” I knew there was magic in a bottle in that album, and my family soon agreed with me.

The question is what explains the magic. What is it that gives one combination of notes or words appealing and enduring staying power? That thing we can’t really explain or put our finger on, but everyone knows it when they see or hear it. The other question is does it even require an explanation. The unequivocal answer is that it compels us to ask the question because we know that something like this doesn’t explain itself, any more than does the beauty of a sunset or full moon. Every work of art speaks to the nature of the one who created or performs it, and creation is God’s canvas.

One of my favorite apologetics concepts gets us to the answer. It is worth remembering because it will help you see God in everything: Explanatory power. It simply means what is the best, most plausible, reasonable, rational explanation for something. That which explains something better than any alternative has explanatory power, and we must always consider the alternative. When I read the pages explaining the mystery of style, I got chills because I was clearly seeing “God’s eternal power and divine nature.” I knew the only explanation for it is God, and He became even more real for me in that moment. His fingerprints are powerfully obvious in every square inch of reality for those with eyes to see. The alternative is atheistic materialism, which explains absolutely nothing as I argued in a recent post. We all know matter plus time plus chance cannot explain the “high mysteries” and the magic. We are encountering something deep, something profound, which are “God’s invisible qualities.”

 

 

 

 

 

Does God Do Miracles Today? He Most Certainly Does!

Does God Do Miracles Today? He Most Certainly Does!

Dec 11, 2023 | The Gospel

That’s kind of a trick question because the moment you see or hear the word miracles you think of, well, miracles! You know, the stuff Jesus did in the gospels and the Apostles in Acts, mostly having to do with physical healing. This post, however, is not about those kind of miracles. I have something much more profound in mind. Do I have your curiosity yet? Well, keep reading.

The reason for this post, and it’s been brewing for a while, is a conversation I had earlier this year with some family members. They asked me if I believed God still did miracles today, and so the discussion went down the physical healing rabbit hole. In one way it’s a silly question. If God is God, then of course he can and does heal, and he does things out of the ordinary from what would happen in the regular course of events. I don’t remember exactly the way the conversation went, but any talk of miracles of a physical kind must start with a biblical, redemptive-historical perspective.

The Nature and Purpose of Biblical Miracles
Biblical miracles are not magic. Their purpose is never to display raw power but to move forward God’s redemptive purposes in history. That’s why they are so rare in biblical history, which might surprise those who’ve never read the Bible. Miracles cluster around three significant redemptive periods, each affirming the message that God works in history to save His people. The first is the Exodus, and the events surrounding it. Another six or seven hundred years would pass before miracles occur again in Israel with the rise of the first prophets, Elijah and Elisha in the 9th century BC. One might think the prophets who follow performed miracles as well, but that was not the case. Even John the Baptist, the great forerunner of the Messiah who is compared to Elijah, did not perform miracles. It seems he would be the perfect person to utilize miracles to support his message, and an invented John the Baptist likely would have, but what we read in the gospels is real history of the real Baptist—no miracles. The third cluster of miracles would surround the greatest miracle worker in biblical history, Jesus of Nazareth, and his first followers.

There was nothing in Israel’s history close to the voluminous miracles performed by Jesus and the Apostles, so we are compelled to ask why. Remember that no Jew in the first century expected anything but a super-human Messiah, but human, nonetheless. They were looking for a king like David to overthrow their latest oppressors, the Romans. Their self-conception going back to the Exodus was that Jews are not slaves or servants of any earthly power, and the indignity of their Roman conquerors was unbearable. They had no choice but to suffer, until, that is, the long-awaited Messiah came to liberate them. They weren’t interested in some itinerant Jewish preacher healing people. As popular as that made Jesus in a time before the healing arts and knowledge of our day, it wasn’t enough to prove he who he said he was. Yet, ironically, it was the miracles that gave him credibility, and most importantly authority. The latter word is critical for a discussion of miracles. We’re not discussing whether God can perform miracles or not. That is not relevant to the discussion because we all know that that’s part of God’s job description. The question given miracles were so rare in redemptive history is, what were they for, what was their purpose, and do miracles today have the same purpose.

The ultimate miracle, Jesus coming back to life after being brutally tortured and killed on a Roman cross, was what earned him the ultimate authority in the universe. He himself tells us so in the Great Commission, that “all authority in heaven and earth” had been given to him. He ascended to sit at the right hand of God to exercise that authority, but he gave that authority in his name and power to the Apostles and prophets to build the foundation of the church. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

The purpose of the miracles was to establish the foundation, and once it was established there was no need to continue the miracles. After the Apostles died there is no record of individuals performing such miracles in the church in the following centuries. That miracles were unique to the Apostles is also clear from reading through Acts and seeing specifically how God used Peter and Paul’s miracles to give authority to the messengers and the message. Once that authority was inscripturated there was no longer a need for specific individuals to display God’s healing power in such a way.

The purpose of this post, however, isn’t to fully argue this case but to explore miracles far greater than physical healing.

Love is the Drug I’m Thinking Of
I hope that title makes you laugh because you can hear the song in your mind as soon as you read it. That most definitely is not the love I’m thinking of. The greatest miracle, and to me one that proves without a doubt God exists, is when two sinners love one another. That is miraculous! One definition of a miracle is doing the impossible, and there is nothing more impossible than when a self-centered sinner loves another self-centered sinner. But what exactly makes this love so seemingly impossible? Well, that depends on what we mean by love.

The love of God in Christ has nothing to do with what our secular world means by love because that love is driven by feelings, and biblical love is not. Worldly love is easy because it is oriented to the fulfillment of self, while biblical love is self-sacrificial. And to add biblical insult to injury, biblical love is a command and we love others in obedience to God like it or not. As Christians we don’t have a choice. In Romans 13 , Paul says it is a debt we owe, and that to God. We can see the difference in the Greek word most often used for love in the New Testament, agape-ἀγάπη, or love which centers in moral preference. That simply means right action for the good of the other. Because it is fundamentally a choice, biblical love is a verb, a word that expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. The feeling is ultimately irrelevant. In fact, true love happens when we don’t feel like it and don’t want to do it. I have a couple stories from my past about how I learned that the hard way.

When I was in college I was involved in a Christian campus ministry. One Saturday we went to a swap meet to try to sell stuff and share the gospel. When I was ready to go back to school at the end of the day, the head of the ministry, an older guy probably in his thirties at the time, said he wanted to go back with me. I didn’t realize he had an ulterior motive—my sanctification. Mike was a guy who could be blunt and had eyes that looked right through you. He could be intimidating. Pulling no punches he comes right out and says, “You’re not a very nice person to be around. You always want people to think like you, and you make them feel bad if they don’t.” And words so related. I was devastated. That night back in the dorm I experienced what is called a dark night of the soul. I told God not only can I not love people; I also don’t want to! At that moment this Christianity thing felt impossible, and I didn’t think I could do it. Thankfully, that was a Saturday, and the next morning I went to church. Whether it was in the sermon or a verse I read, God said something along the lines of, Of course, you can’t do it, but I can do it through you! I remember an instant change from despair to hope.

The next lesson came after I’d graduated from seminary and was working at a small Christian liberal arts college in their communications department. I was 28 at the time, and worked with a young lady who was terribly annoying. At some point I started complaining to God, well, it was more like whining. I’d had several jobs previously where I worked with women who were annoying, and I asked God why yet again I have to work with another person who is so annoying. As the saying goes, if you don’t want to know, don’t ask. And I could swear I heard a voice say out loud, “To teach you how to love her, ya moron!” Well, maybe not the last part, but it would have been fitting. Of course that is what love is for. It doesn’t have much value when we love people who are easy to love. I’m not sure those people exist, but you get the idea.

I’ve used this story many times over the years telling friends and family what they don’t want to hear. Not one ever said, thank you for sharing that. I can’t wait to love! One especially precious moment happened when I told this to a young family member as he was dealing with another difficult relative. He was lying on the floor on his back, and he started shaking his head saying over and over, no, no, no! Basically just like me, I don’t want to! Well, I told him, if you’re a follower of Christ you don’t have a choice. It is important to understand, though, that this kind of divine love is not demeaning; we don’t become doormats, but it allows us to have relationships that flourish in a way they never could when self is the central focus of our lives. It is impossible love made possible, and it transforms lives wherever it goes.

The Radical Death-Life in Christ
The main reason I wrote this post now was because of recently reading Romans 8. Paul explains how there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. He goes on to explain what it means to share in Christ’s death to sin because we no longer live according to the flesh but to the Spirit. Here is how this works:

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

In the past I related passages like this to morality, but never connected it to love. If you think about it, though, what our flesh desires, the sin principle that lives in us, desires our self-fulfillment. It’s all about me! That is why it always leads to death, and not life and peace. When Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, he showed us what that meant by dying for we who were his enemies. He also said following him in his example would be equally as difficult:

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

I want to suggest for your consideration that this has far more to do with loving other sinners than it has to do with being a good moral person, as important as that is. Sin is ultimately relational, first with God, then us, then others.  In Romans 12:1 Paul tells us because of God’s mercy to us, we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is holy and pleasing to God. And he adds something amazing. Doing this is our reasonable, rational, logical service or worship of God. It makes total sense logically in light of everything He has done for us in Christ. We are then compelled to love others. And when you read verse 2 you will see he will tell us how we are to do it, even if much of the time we’re not quite sure. Paul tells us, though, we can “test and approve” what that is.

So, when we interact with someone who absolutely drives us up the wall, that is when the loving rubber meets the road. It applies to the mildly annoying people as well. That’s when we must take up our cross die to our flesh and ask ourselves, or better the Lord, how in the world do I love this person! And also repent that we just don’t want to. Then get on with it. Just remember it will not be easy. That is how you know it is true love.